What's in a name?

Not too much to report school-wise -- had a big Neuro exam on Friday and now I'm holeing myself up for the weekend to study for a big Physiology exam on Monday. This unit is all about the cardiovascular system; anything you can imagine is covered: the cardiac cycle, EKG readings, cardiac measures, blood pressure, peripheral circulation, hemodynamics, and how the system responds in exercise as well as various states of failures. There are 3 pages of mathematical formulas alone to measure. One thing about PA school -- you can never be caught up, you just do your best to prepare for the next big test. I think if all I had was Physiology, or say Neruoanatomy, I would feel really comfortable in any one area, but there is no way you can master it all when you have 8 classes.

I thought I'd go into names a little bit. How many of you have thought about your names, and what they mean? I happen to have a very common name, but it's one I'm rather proud of.

Let's start with my first name: Daniel. I was named after the Biblical Daniel, a prophet as well as an interpreter of dreams and known as a wise man (for clarification: wise man -- not wiseguy). In Hebrew, Daniel means "God is my judge." In the Bible, Daniel is perhaps most known for his courage in the "Lion's Den"













Did you know that Daniel is portrayed in Michaelangelo's famous painting on the Sistene Chapel? Needless to say, Daniel is a quite a popular name worldwide -- many young parents pick this name (and who could blame them?)

But just how common is it? It depends on the source, but here are some of the data I found:

In the U.S., Daniel is the 5th most common given name, overall. You can break it down further and look at states and years -- for example, in California in 2007, Daniel was the most popular given name, and I won't belabor you with all of my findings, though here is one curious one: according to the 2000 U.S. census, Daniel is also the 380th most common surname! Suffice it to say, there are a few of us Daniels around. Here are some links in case you want to research your own name: U.S. links or a more general site

Now let's look at my last name: Miller. As you probably know or would guess, this is incredibly common as well. According to the last U.S. census, it was the 6th most common surname, behind Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, and Jones. Another way to look at it: Millers account for about 0.5% of the U.S. population. Here are some links for last names: a nice NY Times scrolling chart and a whitepages.com breakdown.

And finally, my middle name: Ruben. My middle name came from my paternal grandfather, a man who I greatly love, admire, and respect and who I am proud to be named after. My grandfather, as my family well knows, has many legendary nicknames, though that is a tale for another day. Ruben, incidentally, is the 20th most common given name in Spain, and by its alternate spelling, makes for quite a tasty sandwich. To quote the great Miracle Max: "Sonny, true love is the greatest thing in the world. Except for a nice Reuben sandwich, where the corned beef in nice and lean, and the sauerkraut is fresh."

Hopefully I made you all think a little bit about your own names, if you've never been curious enough to do that in the past. I'd love to hear some comments so feel free to share some stories about your own names and any other interesting related trivia. I'll never forget the time my uncle David lived on a street where there were 2 other David Millers within a few miles. As you can imagine, their poor keystone-cop-like mailman never could get their mail sorted just right.

One more interesting Dan Miller bit: as some of you know, I'm a fan of all things martial arts, including the recent MMA movement. Well, there is an upcoming fighter from Jersey named Dan Miller, and of course, I am a huge fan. We Dan Millers have to stand up for each other, you know? He fights tonight at UFC 90 -- let's hope he does the rest of us Dan Millers proud. Apparently he is a pretty good grappler and submission artist, though I notice he still lacks a nickname. Which reminds me of a converstation I had with my friend Derek, where we tried to come up with possible nicknames for ourselves were we to become MMA fighters. Derek came up with "The Red Herring" which is even more fitting as he has red hair, and I figured that he should hail "from parts unknown." So any suggestions for a good nickname would be appreciated. Here is a link to his bio: Dan Miller's bio & professional record





















Carlin of the day:

The wisest man I ever knew taught me something I never forgot. And although I never forgot it, I never quite memorized it either. So what I'm left with is the memory of having learned something very wise that I can't quite remember.